Who were the Akazonae?
It just pretty much means “red-armoured troops”. The armour and all its trappings are painted in one solid colour. It doesn’t only come in red, there’s also white and yellow, and also black (the Date has a contingent decked in black like this).
This is not commonly done because the materials are expensive (in the case of red and black) and maintenance is not going to be easy. Also, the solid colour makes the troops stick out like a sore thumb. A lot of war tactics involve partial-guerrilla tactics where people hide in forests and trees and cliffs, so this kind of flashy display is only ideal for open field combat.
Red is the most vibrant variation of the colours, so the red outfit is identified with “courage and valour”. Takeda, Yukimura, and Ii Naomasa (Toramatsu)’s akazonae are the most famous, but there are others in history. Again, because it means “red armoured troops”, so if there’s any platoon that’s outfitted in all-red armour, that’s an Akazonae.
Technically, though, the Takeda akazonae was under the command of this man named Obu Toramasa. It bears reminding that because many high tier commanders have their own vassals, this akazonae is Toramasa’s personal troops, not Shingen’s men. However, they eventually became identified as vaguely “Takeda troops” and somehow gets associated with Shingen anyway.
